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An Urgent Effort to Preserve an Artistic Legacy

Recent critical damage to the F.A.T.E. Diorama Museum’s Changing Bodies exhibit made one thing unmistakably clear: this historic exhibition needs urgent attention.

The truth is, all of the exhibits have serious damage. Some figures have broken fingers, others have cracked ankles, the hair and beards are deteriorating, the scenes are falling apart and the clothing and jewelry need repair. In addition, the sound and audiovisual systems require improv

By Ishvara Chandra Das

Śrīla Prabhupāda established the culture of theistic exhibitions in ISKCON with his foundational diorama museum, the First American Transcendental Exhibition (F.A.T.E.), also known as the Diorama Museum of Bhagavad-gītā or the Bhagavad-gītā Museum, which opened in 1977 in the New Dvārakā Dhāma community in Los Angeles. Diorama art depicting the philosophy and narratives of the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and Caitanya-caritāmṛta has since become a staple in ISKCON’s v

In 1973, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), arranged for several of his disciples to go to Mayapura, West Bengal, to study the traditional art of putul (dollmaking). These unfired clay figures are composed of raw materials gathered from the riverbank of the Ganges, traditionally created for holiday festival worship and then submerged back into the Ganges at the end of the season.

Inspired by his guru, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānt